A week after the Brexit referendum saw British citizens vote to leave the European Union, Christie’s held a specially curated 250th anniversary sale of British art. The auction included Old Masters and contemporary works, and strong sales proved that not all is lost for the British – at least as far as the art world is concerned.
New records were even set. British sculptor Henry Moore's Reclining Figure: Festival (1951) was sold for £24.7 million (Dh120m), marking a new record for the artist and for any British sculpture.
Several other paintings reached notable sums. Abstract artist Bridget Riley reached a record for one of her pieces (£4.3m). Francis Bacon's 1968 painting, Version No. 2 of Lying Figure with Hypodermic Syringe sold for £20.2m, and John Constable's 1820s oil sketch View on the Stour Near Dedham, sold for £14.1m.
Total sales edged past its rather conservative estimate of £95m, and as the gavel went down on the final lot, Art News reported that "applause broke out in the house, marking an end to a successful spate of London auctions held in the gloomy spectre of economic and political turmoil".
Indeed, a few days before the Christie’s auction, Philips auction house hosted a sale of 20th-century and contemporary art. Despite massive uncertainty and lowered reserves on lots, that event also surpassed its estimate.
Also in London in the same week, Sotheby’s Contemporary Sale touted some impressive results. A painting by Jenny Saville was sold for £6.8m to the Long Museum in Shanghai for its forthcoming exhibition of women artists – a record auction price for the British artist.
There is no doubt the weakening pound softened the blow of instability that came with the shock of Brexit – in total, the auction sold 87 per cent of its 46 lots, bringing in a total of £52.2m, which was slightly above the pre-sale high estimate of £50m, with bidders coming from 41 countries.
Sterling declined by more than 11 per cent in value against the dollar and 8 per cent against the euro since the vote, effectively handing foreign buyers a substantial discount.
Reports suggested most of the buyers at the week of London’s summer sales were from Asia and America; buyers from the Middle East were also identified as making high bids.
At Sotheby's a number of artworks sold for more than their estimates, including Keith Haring's 1989 The Last Rainforest, which sold for £4.2m to a telephone bidder. Iranian-born artist Ali Banisadr's painting The Garden (2010) sold for a record £353,000.
This was the first time a work by Banisadr had been offered at a Sotheby’s contemporary art auction.
Ashkan Baghestani, a Sotheby’s specialist on Iranian contemporary art, said the piece was sold to an European collector, with other bidders coming from the Middle East and the United States.
However, those international buyers who came looking for a bargain might still have left disappointed because increased interest meant more bids and high prices for the big-ticket works.
aseaman@thenational.ae